Onlyness by Santosh Jha (red white and royal blue hardcover .txt) 📕

themselves to them. Humans have the most developed facility of observance and imagination. These two innate facilities made our ancestors decipher so many patterns in the nature and in their lives. They started to put them into actionable ideas. It is also very natural and we all even today do the same. Those were days, when our ancestors only had the human tools of observations and imaginations as means of corroboration. However, they had the genius to engender such ideas, which were self-evident and self-corroborative in their immediate milieus. They beautifully picked up symbols and metaphors from nature to elaborate and substantiate their ideas. They are part of philosophic and spiritual traditions but actually, they also happen to be the crude resource for scientific enquiry and substantiation. The core philosophy is based not on ideas, which modern contemporary world can label as pure imagination of idle and primitive minds. They can be accepted as observations of realisms, present in the cosmic mechanism and in the microcosm of human lives and their social living by people, who had the most receptive mind consciousness. That is why the core philosophy seems so self-evident and self-corroborative. The core idea emanates out of a realism, which is finality even today and shall always remain the ultimate finality. This finality is mortality.”

“Shiv, why should you talk about death in such a beautiful night!”

“We are not talking death; we are into life and its meaning. Trust me. Once we reach the end of it, you shall find that it is the most beautiful thing to talk about.”

Melissa trusts him. She knows, when he initiated her into new experiences, she was reluctant and unsettled. Now she cherishes them. She understands, probably this is going to be the most difficult experience of her life and that is why, Shiv is keeping her hands grasped between his hands. He wants her to travel the road. If he is there, she fears nothing.

“Melissa, take only small steps with me towards the destination. Join me in my consciousness. We need to put aside our consciousness, which is so used to popular modern ideas and benchmarks. It is a popular way of thinking that death is the end. We shall accept it as the beginning of life. We are just accepting the basic premise as one final truth and that is why, the inevitable has to be accepted as the beginning of all ideas of life. When the assumption is right, the idea has better chances of being right. The core Indian philosophy starts with finality as the initiation of all ideas of life. That is why it is self-evident and self-corroborative. Our worthy ancestors could decipher that even in the definitive and inevitable pattern of mortality; there was overall continuity and immortality, which permeated in the milieus around them. They could decipher that in nature, there were elements, which remained continuous and immortal in totality, even while part of it decayed in cyclic mechanism. This masterly observation was made available to the genius of imagination and it could be unraveled to them that every life on earth too had core elements, which were continuous and immortal, even when part of it decayed in time. This core observation engendered the idea of two distinct but simultaneous elements of the cosmic realism – the mortal and discontinuous and; the immortal and continuous. They also discovered that within human life too, the same twin elements existed. The body was mortal and aligned to discontinuous cosmic elements but the elemental consciousness deep within was immortal and aligned with continuous elements. The subjective feeling of me, the self as distinct and different from other human being was just a virtual bridge between the twin realisms of mortality and immortality. This core idea became the cornerstone of a philosophy, which is enshrined in the cardinal Indian spiritual system. The yoga philosophy also adheres to this core idea. Yoga in ancient Indian language of Sanskrit means union of the immortal elements within a human being with the cosmic elements of immortality. Yoga is a process of attaining the union of jeevatma (the soul of living beings) with parmatma (the ultimate soul). This core idea also led to a belief-system, which decided the ultimate utility and purpose of all lives. Yogic philosophy presents a self-evident and self-corroborative idea of why and what is the true way of living one’s life.”

Shiv pauses to gauge whether Melissa has any questions. She has none. She is not into this mode. She keeps looking in his eyes and occasionally watches his lips. She knows, whenever Shiv makes her learn something good, it is always meant for her wellness and excellence. The only thing, which comes in her mind, is the abruptness with which Shiv brought up this talk. She postpones the question. Shiv continues.

“The core idea was tested empirically in the social milieu. The best laboratory to test and validate any idea empirically is the human body-mind mechanism itself. The patterns of human action and behavior corroborated the idea and they finally became a social practice and part of the larger culture of that time. The culture this core idea evolved, accepted that in life, everyone is naturally inclined to maximize joys and minimize pains. It was accepted that self-welfare is the cardinal goal of life for every living being and this is attainable through self-interface or self-dialogue (aatma-sakchhatkar). The wise of our civilization empirically observed that living beings are in constant and causative relationship with elements of nature. This nature also exists in microcosmic form within living beings. In nature, there are both mortal and immortal elements. They observed that mortal elements are usually expressed in tangible matter and immortal ones in intangible form. They deciphered that human being could attain their lasting and continuous wellness only when they establish a relationship with immortal and intangible elements of nature and life. The philosophy they engendered says – true and lasting relationship can happen only between similar and generic elements. This is the idea, yogic philosophy practices in totality and perfection. Yogic philosophy maintains that even the matter shall finally lead to a-matter, tangible shall lead to intangible and mortal elements shall lead to immortal elements. This is because, empirically, true and lasting relationship can happen only between similar and generic elements. The five senses of body mechanism shall initially orient a person to consumption and gratification. However, the same five senses automatically and finally leads to the realization that these consumptions and gratifications are ephemeral and mortal. This is self-evident and self-corroborative as every human knows that mortality is inevitable and the ultimate realism. Yogic philosophy admits it as self-evident for all that all pleasures of body and all joys of gratifications have the inbuilt and inherent energy advocating against it. The energies of attachments and gratifications are entwined with the inverse energies of detachment and renunciation. That is why, within a human being, the desire and will to have a life of absolute detachment and renunciation is as powerful as the desire and will for a life of attachment and gratification. The philosophy, which enshrines the ideals of purpose of life as attainment of perpetuity of wellness, therefore extends this empirically self-evident and self-corroborative fact. It says that every human being should consciously opt for a relationship with only the intangibly expressed continuous and immortal elements of nature, both within the nature of the body-mind consciousness as well as the nature outside in physically and tangibly expressed domain. It says that anyone can decipher the practical realism that the flow of energy of gratification is also joyous but it ends up in the finality of pain and emptiness. Whereas, the energy flow of detached consciousness keeps augmenting like a flame in the fireplace, which is self-energized by constant offering of renounced elements of consciousness.”

“Shiv, usually philosophy is something most of us believe as some utopian ideas not amenable to test of practicality. However, what you say seems so plausible and reasonably evident. However, what comes to my mind is, if this realism about human nature and life realism is so self-evident and self-corroborative, why then the whole world is doing just the reverse of it. Everyone is onto gratifications and consumptions and still they say the world is becoming a far better place to live as more and more people are having greater personal resources and purchasing power. And as you said, this gratification joy is as potent an energy as the renunciation is.”

“This is something, which you can say is a natural question. It seems very natural that if there is a goodness and larger wellness idealism for humanity, it must be followed by all. But, as you said, most of the people do just the opposite of the idealism. Then surely, it seems like the right conclusion that as majority of people do not accept it and follow it, it can never be an idealism and never a self-corroborative idea. We shall deal with the question in a very pragmatic way; not as philosophy but as prevalent realism. As I told you earlier, we shall take it step by step. The first step is the very pragmatic and self-evident realism that the powerful energy of joy in consumption and gratification is entwined with its end in pain and discontinuity. There is this famous metaphor of equating it with the joy of itching. It starts with so much pleasure when we scratch an itch. If we continue with it, it finally ends up in sharp pain and even bleeding in very short time. The idea is that the very core and perennial realization of painful mortality and regret of any gratification joy, even while we are at the peak of its enjoyment is there from the very start. The fruit of gratification has seeds of pain and regret of its inevitable discontinuity loaded within it. Yogic philosophy lists three broad types of grief and pain for humans. As it is the essential nature of a tangible gratification element, the person who starts enjoying it has this grief and pain well on in his or her mind that this joy shall finally land him or her in trouble. It is in fact instantaneous. People globally know that more people are dying because of overeating and overindulgence. The moment you overeat, you start feeling uneasy. As is human instinct, there is also a sense of guilt after the action, which we happily ignore but it is stored in the subconscious. This is first type of grief. The second grief emanates out of the mortality and discontinuity of the very element of tangible gratification. If I have million dollars, I am always stressed and in perpetual consternation that this money I may lose in business or in other way. Worse, the moneys may be robbed or authorities may take it away as tax. Worst enough; I am also unhappy that my neighbor probably has more wealth and better prospect of being wealthier than me. The third grief is that when I have once got the taste of a particular gratification, it is stored in my memory and subconscious mind. When finally the gratification is no more available to me, its memory becomes an excruciating source of grief and pain.”

“Shiv, I truly understand and accept this thus far. I have personally gone through all this and that is why, it is more than self-evident to me. I presume, every one of us have our own set of practical experiences in life, which can truly corroborate the realism, which you mentioned. I think, the next step to this progression is why and how still, majority of people continue to be in this gratification and consumption worldview, even when the ultimate futility of it is so empirically self-evident and self-corroborative.”

“Melissa, this part of the question has answers, which are still evolving. Science has been into understanding the consciousness of living being and especially humans. Psychology as well as yogic philosophy has answers but they cannot be